THQ CEO Brian Farrell said at the Cloud Gaming USA conference in San Jose today that cloud gaming is the future and that - to paraphrase what he actually said - will inevitably cannibalize traditional retail, with console makers dropping the need for discs on the next generation of consoles.

"No physical goods cost for game makers,” said Farrell. “No inventory, no markdowns, and all the money spent by the consumer would go to the developer or publisher."

Farrell also noted that in this new environment company's like his would have a better opportunity to offer customers top-level service:

“Our games are always on and our players are always connected....We have the opportunity to interact with players in new ways that can be reactive to their desires, play habits, and buying habits. The box, ship and done model are transitioning to: observe, measure, and modify."

And with this paradigm shift into the clouds, THQ's top executive says that his company would be willing to tinker with new pricing models. Using MX vs. ATV Alive as an example. instead of selling that game at the normal price THQ sold the game for $39.99 with lots of optional content.

"But what we found was unlike free to play, $39.99 just wasn't low enough to drive a big enough install base to push the level of DLC we had initially hoped for."

Farrell concluded by saying that technology alone is not enough to steer the ship to the magical journey into the cloud:

"Technology alone will not give a clear benefit to the consumer," Farrell cautions. "Cloud computing and data storage could potentially do a lot, but it's what we do with it as game designers and publishers that really matters most."

Comments

"The Cloud" is just a marketing term. The way he throws it around says he really doesn't understand it. He is just talking about another digital storefront and file service. All the money won't go to the publisher and developer. Just like in retail, whatever storefront will take their bite first.

And always online? Are you kidding me? Network hardware and software is incredibly complex and prone to failure. Without massive redundancy on their end and a magic pixie at your local ISP, there is no guarantee of "always online".

And don't get me started on the programming requirements for a custom built online service…

Yeah...I hope Cloud gaming never takes place its going on right now but what would stop them for charging a service fee and then a monthly fee? We had this for SEGA TV years ago and now OnLive I would never support a complete Cloud Service unless I agree with its policies and its something like how Steam is. Basically all Cloud Gaming is, is cutting costs but do you think they will lower the price?

No Cloud Gaming will be the final form of DRM which will make a gaming Depression. I don't see people conumers supporting this. This looks good to the stock holders but to the average joe its a lot of waste. I love Digital Gaming but only it the service is right.

PS3 as is it's monthly service if you guy a game with it's discount and then you don't stay with the service you lose the game and must rebuy full price again or go back to Playstation Plus

Cloud gaming is to retro gaming what TV is to theatres and DVDs. It's just another way to go. When TVs came out, movie theatres were terrified they were going to go out of business but they survived in their own category. Same with retro gaming.

It may be the future, it may not but one thing is for certain we are not there yet. The next round of consoles will have physical media. While US broadband is much better today than it was 10 years ago we still have things like data caps, duopolies, relatively low speeds and all those things are going to conspire with an audience that isn't totally ready to ditch retail and physical discs and bottom line is we aren't going to see a gaming space like he is talking about for another 10 years at least.

I think even then though that we'll still see a mix of online sales and retail sales. If there is money to made in a market someone will make it and if there is even 15% of the market that prefers to buy retail you'll see someone publish in retail channels.

This is the developer/publisher wet dream of course, they retain all control, second sale dissappears and piracy becomes harder. The advantages to the gamer are not so pronounced, although done right things like cloud saves and play anywhere could be compelling features.

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Andrew Eisen: Daniel - She doesn't say that in any of the TvW videos and I doubt she's said elsewhere that all games with male protagonists are male power fantasies. Anyway, you seem to be conflating two different ideas.03/31/2015 - 5:30pm

Wymorence: For me it just boils down to the fact that, even at a giant company, when a game comes out annually it just gives it a vibe of being rushed out the door. And god knows Unity sucked some major lemur with all its bugs...03/31/2015 - 4:22pm

PHX Corp: I launched my spotify account today, and I kinda went a little overboard with adding music03/31/2015 - 3:59pm

Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am